Rising up

EL SEGUNDO Nobody taught Dustin Brown how to lead, how to win. Those skills were self-learned.

When Brown arrived in the Kings' locker room as an 18-year-old rookie in 2003, to whom could he turn? The Kings had good-character veterans such as Ian Laperriere and Mattias Norstrom, but their rings came only from marriage, not championships. The Kings had no winning culture, no shared success to draw upon.

Now, it's different. There's a leadership core in place, not just from the Stanley Cup-winning team of 2012 but going back several years. There's continuity, there's stability and there are growing expectations.

“It's no longer just coaches and management holding people accountable,” said Brown, the Kings' captain. “It's the players holding each other accountable. That's what culture is all about. A few years ago, it was a group of us, four or five guys, who had that. Now, it's an entire group of guys willing to pay the price.”

When training camp opened last month, in advance of today's season opener at Minnesota, the Kings didn't need much time for introductions. For a second consecutive year, they're almost all back.

On June 11, 2012, the night the Kings won the Stanley Cup, 19 players logged ice time. Of those, 16 remain on the active roster. The biggest loss is veteran defenseman Rob Scuderi, who signed with Pittsburgh this summer. Dustin Penner and Simon Gagne have arguably been replaced by upgrades.

The Kings also regained two veteran defensemen: Willie Mitchell, who missed all of last season because of a knee injury, and Matt Greene, who played only five regular-season games because of a back injury.

So, if anything, the Kings are closer to their Cup-winning selves now than they were at the start of last season. That's a big reason why league pundits overwhelmingly have the Kings as the favorites in the new-look Pacific Division and many have them pegged for another trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

“It's great,” Greene said of the continuity. “You've got to ride your core group of players while you have that window of opportunity. Depending on the age of guys, it could be four, five, six years, hopefully.”

When General Manager Dean Lombardi took over in 2006, he often spoke of his affinity for the Detroit Red Wings and the model they had set up. The Red Wings didn't return the same roster every year, but they locked up a handful of core players to long-term contracts and made minor annual changes around them.

That only works if the general manager picks healthy, productive core players. Lombardi has succeeded.

Forwards Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter, Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards, defensemen Drew Doughty and Slava Voynov and goalie Jonathan Quick are all between the ages of 23 and 28. Prime years remain. Kopitar's contract expires in 2016. The other six are locked up until at least 2019.

“I think it's just a sense of the comfort around here,” Kopitar said. “You come into training camp and you know 90 percent of the guys. To have that familiarity, it's a huge positive.”

Other complementary pieces, such as forwards Jarret Stoll and Justin Williams and defensemen Robyn Regehr and Alec Martinez, each have two years remaining on their contracts. Talented youngsters Tyler Toffoli, Tanner Pearson, Linden Vey and Jake Muzzin are ready to step in when needed.

There's every reason to think that the Kings, who reached the Western Conference finals last spring but were eliminated by Chicago in five games, will be favorites in the West for years to come.

“You don't really understand what you've won until you've lost it,” Brown said. “After winning the Cup, getting knocked out in 2013 was much worse than it was getting knocked out previously.”

The Kings finished fifth in the conference last year, and Quick didn't look as sharp as he did in 2011-12. But two factors should change that. Quick will once again have Greene and Mitchell on defense, rather than youngsters Muzzin and Keaton Ellerby. Quick is also fully recovered from summer 2012 back surgery.

Can the Kings finally dominate a regular season? They finished eighth in the West when they won the Cup, and Coach Darryl Sutter regularly preaches a “just get in” mindset when it comes to the playoffs.

Their recent past indicates that it's more important to be playing well in April than dominating in October.

“Sure, you want to win the President's Trophy, but when you look back, it's most important just to get in,” Kopitar said. “A new page turns and you start writing a new story. Would it be nice to win the division? Absolutely. It's nice to get that banner, but that's not the one we're playing for.”

A few years ago, the Kings would have celebrated any banner, but times have changed.

Brown (2003), Kopitar (2006), Quick (2007) and Doughty, Greene and Stoll (2008) have each been with the Kings for at least five years. They were on a team that finished 14th in the West (2009) and then they lifted the Stanley Cup. With Lombardi's help, they will try to avoid a return to the dark days.

“In the salary-cap era, it's about keeping your core together,” Brown said. “I think we have a very good core here, and it's something we can build off of.”

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